


Love and War

by AppleStar



Category: Sonic the Hedgehog (Video Games)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), F/M, Love Confessions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-18
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-21 13:48:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17044877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AppleStar/pseuds/AppleStar
Summary: Amy and Knuckles spent a lot of time together during the war with Eggman. A friendship blossomed. Now that the war is over, will that friendship continue? Of course it will this is a KnuxAmy fic.





	1. Friendship Blooming

**Author's Note:**

> Author’s Note: I am definitely not a writer, but I have a strong love for this couple. I felt the need to write this story and figured I may as well share it with anyone who is willing to forgive my poor writing. The story takes place in game timeline after Sonic Forces. In my view, the characters have aged with each game. Knuckles in this timeline is in his late 20’s, ect. Thanks for reading!

The war had taken a huge toll on everyone. As leader of the resistance, Knuckles had dealt with a lot of stress during that time. After months of living in close quarters with several people, Knuckles thought he would enjoy the solitude of the island again. It was true--to an extent. In order to keep the Master Emerald safe during Eggman's attack, the guardian had shattered the gem, sending her shards across the land. As soon as the war had ended, he had set out to put the emerald back together. It was a simple yet time consuming task for him. Now that she was safe and sound sitting on her alter again, Knuckles found himself becoming restless. His life had been so drastically different during the war. He wasn't used to the calm, quiet nature of the island anymore. It was a relief to be back, yet at the same time it felt strange to be home.

During his time as leader of the resistance he had been forced to converse and work with other people. Knuckles was used to being a one man show. The only time he teamed up was when he had worked with Sonic and Tails every once in a while. Now that things had finally settled down, Knuckles found himself feeling somewhat lonely. It wasn't an emotion he was used to having. He had lived alone for most of his life. He had never needed anyone. In fact he prided himself in his independence. That all changed after he met Sonic an Tails. Suddenly he had friends, and the number only grew. The company was nice, but always on his terms. His island. His rules.

There were many thoughts knocking around in that echidna skull of his as he sat silently in front of the emerald's shrine. The war with Eggman had made him realize several things. The foremost on his mind was the survival of his species. It was something that he had put off for far too long. Knuckles wasn't the greatest at social interaction, after all he spent most of his life interacting with very few people. What frustrated him most about the whole thing was how often his mind would come back to Amy.

' _ _Amy...__ ,' Knuckles mentally scolded himself for allowing that crush to happen. He closed his eyes and crossed his arms. His brow furrowed as he became increasingly frustrated with his own feelings, ' _ _...of all people why Amy? The girl obsessed with Sonic.__ '

Amy had been by his side during the entirety of the war. They had worked so closely together, spending nearly every day with one another. Knuckles felt he had learned a lot about her during that time. She seemed so different--much more mature than he had remembered her. She had shown incredible leadership and strength right alongside him. He admired that. Much to his surprised she hadn't constantly talked about Sonic. Perhaps that was because she knew he was no longer available. The only talk of Sonic was when they expressed their concern for his well being or reminisced about their adventures with him. They had all thought Sonic dead. It had been a miracle to get him back.

His thoughts were interrupted when he opened his eyes to see what looked like Amy in the distance. Immediately he stood up, convinced his mind was playing tricks on him. But there she was. He couldn't help the little smile that grew upon his muzzle.  
  
"What are you doing here?", he asked, trying to hide his happiness behind that tough guy exterior.

"Nice to see you too!", she huffed playfully at him.

Knuckles smirked down at her. Before the war, he had barely given her a second glance. As she stood in front of him now, he could only admire how beautiful she had become in his eyes.

"I saw the island in the sky again.", she gestured to the Master Emerald. "Everything okay up here?"

"Mm. Things are back to normal here. Luckily the island didn't take too much of a hit from Eggman. Guess he didn't care to waste any time here once he figured out the emerald was gone.", Knuckles explained.

"I'm glad the island was spared." She smiled. Checking up on the island was just an excuse to see him. She knew that. She wasn't fooling herself. Neither did she care. She had been aching to see him.

"Yeah." Knuckles closed his eyes. She was too cute when she smiled. It was best not to look. "How are things going down there?"

"Things are coming along quickly. Rebuilding is a lot of work, but with so many people putting forth an effort, everything is being done in record time. Life will be back to normal soon."

There was a lull of awkward silence.

"It's nice to see you again.", Amy whispered.

Afraid he might show some sort of weakness in response to her words, Knuckles quickly turned on his heel and ascended the shrine steps. "Nice to see you again too."

Amy was a bit confused as to if this was an indication that the conversation was over. Was she was supposed to head on home? She didn't come all that way just to spend a lowly five minutes there, so she pursued him. Once he reached the top Knuckles was somewhat surprised to see Amy had followed him. He took a seat in front of the Master Emerald and stared at her.

"Soooo..." Amy tapped her hands at her sides. "Are you just going to sit here all day?"

Knuckles furrowed his brow.

"Not that that's a bad thing!", she quickly added. With that look he had given her she was afraid she'd touched a nerve. "But don't you get bored?"

"If you must know, I don't always just sit here. Sitting with the emerald is relaxing, but it's not all there is to do on the island."

"Well," Amy took a seat beside him, "what else do you do then?"

Knuckles felt like this was some sort of interrogation on how he spent his time. "Hiking. Swimming. Gardening. Rock climbing. Fishing. The island offers me many things."

"But not companyyyy!", she cooed.

"I've never needed company and I'm not about to start.", he huffed, but immediately regretted saying such a thing to her. However, it seemed to affect her very little.

"Come on Knuckles, admit it, you missed me!", Amy teased.

He simply looked at her without giving any verbal response to that.

"That settles it. I'm going to come visit you more often. You have everything you need here except someone to talk to!" This was her chance to spend some time with him without the worry of war. She was going to snag it!

Just as he was about to open his mouth, Amy shoved her finger over his lips. "No, no! I insist. It'll be fun, I promise!"

Knuckles blinked at her. How could she stop him with just a finger over his mouth? Yet there he was, completely giving in. What kind of power was this that she held over him? He didn't have it in him to object. If he was being honest with himself he didn't even want to object.

"Fine.", he agreed, trying not to sound eager in the slightest.

"Great!" Amy bolted up and clapped her hands. "I'm here now. So how about you show me around the island?"

Knuckles lifted himself up with a smile. Now that was something he could get behind. He was proud of his island. The thought of having her around was already something he was excited for, but he wouldn't let on.

“Let’s go.”, he nodded.


	2. Movie Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Knuckles and Amy having some hang outs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sick but I did it! I just like cute interactions. :3 I hope it's not too boring.

Amy had been true to her word. She visited Knuckles once a week for the next couple of weeks. Honestly Amy wanted to visit him more often, she just didn’t want to come off too strong. Amy had done that in the past. That wasn’t a mistake she wanted to make again.

Afternoons they spent together had started out somewhat awkward. Time together off the job was different. The two of them had never truly hung out without reason, but both of them were learning that maybe they should have started doing so sooner. Knuckles treasured every day that Amy came to visit, but the stubborn echidna forced himself not to be visibly excited for her arrival. Amy on the other hand was always a bucket of sunshine. It was hard for Knuckles to ignore that energy, but he kept his excitement under wraps. He was good at that.

The two of them sat near a small fire pit that Knuckles had kept nearby his home. Together they watched some silly movie on Amy’s laptop. The echidna only partially paid attention. He was more focused on cooking as he indulged Amy’s desire to force him to watch such strange shows. He found himself with more questions than answers after watching the movies she always brought along. But this one? Why did Amy like this stuff?

Amy adored Knuckles’ company. He actually sat there and watched ‘chick flicks’ with her. So Knuckles was a little rough around the edges; he was a great guy!

“She’s stupid.”, The echidna stated as he stirred the boiling pot before him.

“Excuse me…?”, Amy turned to him, offended for the girl in the movie.

“She’s stupid.”, he repeated, tapping the spoon on the edge of the pot.

“Why would you say that?! The whole story is about how she was bullied and now you’re going to bully her too?”, Amy huffed.

“Tch! Look at that jerk!” Knuckles pointed the spoon at the screen. “The girl ditched her glasses and suddenly this pretty boy thinks she’s beautiful? He didn’t like her before! This movie makes no sense!”

Amy turned back to the screen. “Well…he thinks she’s pretty now…”

“Why?! The glasses didn’t make her ugly. And her! “ Knuckles wasn’t sure why he was getting so passionate about this all of the sudden. “She’s going to go out with this guy who never gave her the time of day when she __did__ wear glasses? She’s stupid. Ditch the guy. She should find someone who likes her for who she not what she looks like.”

“Knuckles that’s so sweet…”, Amy whimpered at him. She had never expected that kind of reaction out of him. In fact she hadn’t been sure just how much he was actually paying attention to the movie.

“It’s not sweet--It’s--It’s just common sense.” He went back to stirring. “Glasses don’t make you ugly. Personality makes you ugly. That guy has a bad personality. She deserves better.”

“Knuckles!”, Amy giggled. “You’re so into this movie!”

“No I’m not! I just can’t stand how stupid everyone is in it.”, he huffed.

“Aww, Knuckles. I see your point.” Amy smiled. She liked cheesy movies like this but she could definitely see where Knuckles was coming from.

“I wouldn’t think __you__  were any less attractive if you wore glasses.”, Knuckles let slip, but to him he was just driving his point home.

Amy felt her entire face grow warm. Had he just said that to her? For once in her life she didn’t know how to respond. Why couldn’t she react?! She was just sitting there dumbfounded by the fact that some guy had genuinely complimented her. She hadn’t fished for it or anything! She peeked at Knuckles out of the corner of her eye. He seemed focused on finishing his dish. He was acting like it was no big deal!

‘ _ _Calm down. Calm down. Don’t let it go to your head. You HAVE to take things slow. You don’t want him to think you’re going to be on him like you were all over Sonic. Besides, that could have been nothing. He didn’t seem to think it was anything__.’ Amy made sure to keep her face clear of Knuckles sight until she calmed herself down.

“Here.”, Knuckles said, trying to get Amy’s attention.

Amy turned to see Knuckles holding out of plate of food towards her. “Oh--thank you.”

“No problem.”, Knuckles replied as she finally took the plate from him.

“Fish?”, she asked.

“Fish, beans, corn.”, he listed off.

Knuckles prepared himself a plate and peeked over at Amy. She seemed to be only poking at her food.

“What? You don’t like fish?”

“No! I mean, I do like fish. It smells great. Sorry, I’m just not that hungry.” Regardless, she wasn’t going to be rude. She would attempt to eat at least a little bit.

“Don’t worry about it.” That was no skin off his back. However, he was happy to see that she was actually trying it.

“Knuckles…this is really good.” Amy was a bit awed by just how well Knuckles could cook. “I didn’t know you could cook!”

“Why wouldn’t I?”, Knuckles chuckled a little at that. “How else would I eat? Nobody is going to cook for me.”

It kind of hit Amy just how sad that revelation was. “I guess so.”, she whispered. “Did you teach yourself?”

“No.” Knuckles paused. “My dad taught me.”

Immediately he went to stuffing his face.

Amy could sense the discomfort, but wanted to see just how much she could press. “He must have been a good cook. What happened to him?”

Knuckles avoided the question by finishing his food before responding. “Dead.”

“I’m sorry.” She placed her plate on the ground.

“Don’t be. He was old. Really old. He had me late in life. He was lucky he had me or he would have died the last of our species.”

“Yeah…”, Amy muttered. She wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

“I don’t want to make the same mistake he did.”, Knuckles sighed. “He died when I was ten. I guess he was able to teach me a few things before he was gone. Everything I know I learned from him. What I didn’t learn from him I’ve found out on my own by exploring the temples.”

Amy was actually surprised Knuckles was opening up this much to her. For Knuckles it was just a conversation. A matter of facts. His dad was dead. Amy had asked and he had spoken. Death was a lot easier to talk about than romantic feelings.

“And your mom?”, Amy asked cautiously.

“Died shortly after she had me.”, he replied without much emotion. Then he turned his attention towards her. “What about you? Never seen you with any family before.”

“Me?” Amy blinked, caught off guard at the sudden change of focus. “I--don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”, he questioned her.

“Well--I ran away when I was eight.”, she sighed.

“Why?”

Amy blushed and hid her face in her hands.

“It’s fine. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to.”, Knuckles offered. He was simply curious, but he wouldn’t force her to talk about that stuff if she didn’t want to.

Amy let out the longest sigh and finally lifted her face from her palms. She knew she should tell him, especially since he had been so open with her. “I was really into tarot cards when I was younger. You know…that kind of stuff. Basically the cards told me that if I went to Little Planet I’d meet the man of my dreams! Of course my parents told me not to go but I was young and stupid. That’s when I met Sonic.”

“Geez, you were looking for the man of your dreams at eight?!”, Knuckles snickered.

“Don’t laugh!”, she huffed at him. “I said I was stupid okay! After that I started chasing Sonic around everywhere. I had some pretty bad tunnel vision.”

“Yeah tell me about it.”, he smirked.

“I’m trying to be serious here!”, she growled at him.

“Alright, alright. Sorry.” He held his hands up in front of him. “So why not go back now?”

“It’s been so long…I got so caught up in chasing Sonic around that the years flew by. I’m just…I’m just scared to go back now…”, she admitted.

“What’s there to be scared of?”, Knuckles tried to assure her.

“I ran away Knuckles. I’m sure my parents are mad at me.”, she whimpered.

“Yeah, I bet they aren’t thrilled you ran away, but I think they’d be pretty happy to see you again.”, he argued.

“Maybe.” Amy nodded and took a deep breath. “Maybe one day I’ll have the courage to go back home.”

“I know you can do it.”, Knuckles encouraged. “After all, look at everything you did for the resistance. I couldn’t have run that all by myself. Computers? Not my thing. You handled all the stuff I couldn’t. If you could do all that, then you can return home to face your parents.”

Amy looked up at him. What a lovely thing to say. Knuckles really was so different when he wasn’t just using his fists to do all the talking. She offered him the sweetest of smiles. “Thank you.”

With that Knuckles suddenly got all flustered. He scooped up their plates and swiftly carried them off towards his hut.

“Mm…” Amy sighed and smiled to herself.

Alongside his bungalow sat a long wooden table and a large clay bowl filled with water. There he went to work washing the plates and thinking about how potentially wonderful OR terrible getting with Amy could actually be. He was so flustered and caught up in what ifs that he completely forgot to remove his gloves before he dunked his hands in the water.

“Want some help?”

Knuckles didn’t even turn to acknowledge Amy had followed him over. “Nope, I got it.”

“Never been inside your house before.”, Amy poked. She ran her hand along the hut’s wooden and stone exterior. The roof was thatched and was showing it’s age. It was very much a house that had been built by either Knuckles or his father before him.

“Not much to see in there.”, Knuckles informed.

“I’ll just take a peek!” She winked at him and immediately ran for the door.

‘ _ _Geez, she’s impatient__.’, Knuckles sighed. He quickly swapped his gloves off for another pair which had been hanging out to dry.

By the time he got inside Amy was already in his stuff.

“Look at all these books!”, Amy gasped. She was kneeled down next to a huge pile of books that were sitting in the corner of his hut. The pile was taller than her. “Why are they just sitting here on the floor? You need a bookshelf.”

“They’re fine.” He waved it off.

“Have you read them all?”, she asked as she pulled herself back up.

“Mmm…I’ve looked through them. Tails sends me books sometimes. He probably thinks I need something to do up here.” Knuckles shrugged.

“The least you could do is stack them nicely.”, Amy suggested.

Knuckles ignored that. “Anyway, not much to see in here-like I said--”

“You sleep in a hammock?” Amy was already moving on. She’d caught sight of his bed on the other side of the hut.

“Yea. I kind of missed it. The beds we had during the war were alright, but I much prefer the hammock.”

“That’s just because you haven’t slept on a comfortable mattress. Those mattresses we had at base? Terrible. There’s no doubt your hammock is more comfortable than those things.”

“Mm.” Knuckles watched her examine his home. It was just a simple one room hut. A bed, some books, pottery, and some chests. There wasn’t a whole lot to see out in the open. Most of his life was outside of that hut.

“It’s cozy in here.” Amy turned to Knuckles and smiled. In all honesty she wasn’t sure if she could ever live like that, but seemed fitting for Knuckles. That was just who he was.

“It’s a place to sleep.” Knuckles was glad she wasn’t ripping into it for having no running water.

“Speaking of sleep. I better get started back home.”, Amy replied.

Knuckles’ heart sank just a little. He got a little frustrated with himself for not wanting her to go. “At least it’s a quick hop to Mystic Ruins with the teleporter.”

The easiest way to and from the island was with a teleportation device that Tails had created. One teleporter sat hidden away near the train station in Mystic Ruins. It’s partner sat on Angel Island. Knuckles had been insistent that Tails’ invention wasn’t going to interfere with the Master Emerald. The thing came in handy but it didn’t fit in with his island. He wanted it out of sight and out of mind. Tails set it up safely about five minutes walking distance from the shrine. Knuckles was fine with that. It had come in handy on a few occasions.

“Yeah. It’s just the train ride back to Station Square that takes a little time.”, she sighed. “At least I don’t have to drive. I can rest as I ride home.”

“You…coming back again next Saturday?”, Knuckles asked sheepishly.

Amy smiled. The way he had asked that was so adorable. “If you want me to.”

Knuckles paused for a moment. “I do.”

“So do I.”, she replied softly. Could it be that he was enjoying their time together just as much as she was?

The whole exchange was so sweet that Knuckles felt the blush begin to form upon his cheeks. He turned out the door and started walking. “I’ll walk you to the teleporter.”

“Thank you.” Amy smiled to herself and followed behind. He had walked her there every time. He was such a gentleman sometimes.


End file.
